Yagura carefully scanned the scroll, looking for any sort of genjutsu or some trick of the light. Samehada had been lost to Kirigakure for years ever since it was lost to the possession of one Hoshigaki Kisame after he defected from his village. They were willing to accept the sword probably wouldn't fall into their hands again, but here it was. In perfect condition.

"You say Hoshigaki is dead?" he clarified. "Were you the one who killed him?"

Sakura shook her head. "But a Konoha shinobi did. They weren't aware Kisame kept Samehada, I think, but I was able to get my hands on it before they did."

He quirked an eyebrow. "So you decided to turn it in to me?"

"I don't see you complaining."

Yagura chuckled lightly and walked around his desk to store the scroll in a safe place. Once again, the girl had managed to surprise him in one of the unlikeliest of cases. It also further cemented the trust they had and the favors he owed her, especially now that she was already a ROOT member and was on her merry path to taking Shimura Danzo's place, just like she said she would.

"True. I'm not," he said. "But, this is something I owe you immensely for. That Kiri owes you. What do you want?"

She gave a little shrug and smiled politely. "Nothing much, Yagura-sama. I just hope this alliance doesn't fall apart."

It was a lot for a shinobi to ask of a Kage—a Kage that wasn't even hers—though Yagura found her single condition fair at all lenses he observed it through. She hadn't tricked him into any one of Konoha's plans and spoke honestly about the things she allowed herself to talk about. She'd divulged the location of Kabuto's body, helped his Kiri shinobi, and now had returned one of the village's biggest secrets when she had every opportunity to keep it for herself.

"I have no qualms with that, Haruno-san," he said. "And I only ask that what we've been doing all this time is to be kept quiet." Yagura extended his hand, and she took it to seal their deal of silence. "Is this all you've come here for?"

Sakura rolled her shoulders. "Well... that side mission you assigned me. The man's name is Nagato."

"How sure are you? Have you met up with him?" he questioned curiously. The slight urgency in his tone edged along his words, but soon melted when she denied his latter claim.

"I haven't met up with him, per se..." she lied. Her pointer finger made circles in the air as she mulled over her next words. "But we've come to a mutual understanding."

"So you've had correspondence?"

"Yes," she said. "He's been mislead to believe some things, but we've cleared it up for him and he shouldn't be a problem in the future. If he is, I'll take full responsibility and handle his situation."

Yagura considered her for a few seconds before he sat down in his chair with a light sigh. "If you hold that much faith in him, I don't see any reason to disagree." He smiled. "Thank you for your service, Haruno Sakura. You've done my village and my people a great deed even if they don't know it."

"It's been my pleasure, Yagura-sama," replied Sakura, bowing courteously as any decent shinobi would. She turned to exit, but threw one last mischievous look over her shoulder. "Don't be afraid to ring me up if you need something else done, because once I kick Danzo's ass out of his seat, I'll have a little more elbow room to work with."

::

The stares of his clan members dropped a pressure on his shoulders, and even as he stood as straight as his spine allowed, his muscles strained and tensed under all the unwanted attention. They were whispering too—wondering why he was here and if he decided to follow in his father's footsteps.

Sasuke looked up at Konoha's Military Police symbol on the building he stood in front of, his application papers crumpling slightly under his rigid grip. There were already rumors about him in the family and about how he was the disobedient black sheep that bared his fangs at his own blood relatives.

He would've rolled his eyes if he wasn't so nervous. The Uchiha had always been unnecessarily distasteful with the judgment in their eyes and the bitterness in their sneers.

He didn't want to become one of them. He wouldn't.

And maybe, in the future, he could climb the ranks of the force and be the leader his clan needed and the one his father never was.

::

"Naru-chan, can you bring those glasses over here?"

"Oh, can you take these to the back?"

"Naru-kun~ Come here, darling. Let me fix that mussed up hair of yours."

"Oi, Naru-chan. Got some bast'rds out front. Wanna rough 'em up with me?"

"Hell yeah, 'ttebayo!"

Jiraiya watched from the inside of Magenta's building from his spot in the corner of the room. Just recently, he returned from a reconnaissance mission to a half ruined Konoha and the news of Orochimaru killed by the hands of an unknown shinobi. His eyes trailed after Naruto as he trotted out the lounge after his step-dad with a wide grin on his face. 

Then someone slid into the booth seat across from him, slightly nervous and a sheepish hand at the back of his head. "Sorry for the wait, Jiraiya-sama, I—um, you wanted to speak with me? About Naruto?"

"I did," Jiraiya answered, his fingers wrapping around the handle of his beer mug. "You're Naruto's official guardian, so I wanted to ask you some things before I brought it up with him. So I'll get down to it. I want to train the brat, and I'm going to need about two years to do it."

"Train him? Outside the village?" Iruka clarified. At the nod his way, he frowned and scratched his cheek. "I guess he's at that stage, huh? Getting apprenticeships and things like that."

"Listen, if you don't want him to—"

"It shouldn't be up to me," the Academy teacher interrupted. "It's Naruto's future and it wouldn't be fair to him if I didn't let him decide this for himself."

As big a decision as it was and as much as it would pain him for his adopted son to be gone for such a long time, it was a one in a million opportunity. It wasn't every day that an offer was extended to get trained by one of the most prominent figures of the shinobi community, and especially with the path Naruto chose to take...

Iruka fiddled with a napkin. "He wants to be a Konoha ambassador. Er, a liaison between all villages to discuss peace and bring the nations closer to becoming united. I've already seen him borrow books on the laws and customs of different countries."

Naruto bounded back into the building with Mari in tow, some dirt dusting his casual black shirt as he amiably chatted up to his step-dad, the two walking through the bar and back to the break room.

"He'll say yes. I know he will," Iruka sighed. A soft smile touched his lips despite how sad he was growing. "Just... promise to take care of him, okay?"

Minato stared him straight on and planted both hands on his shoulders. The sage blinked at the severity of his student's stare. "When my son is born and if I'm not around, just... promise to take care of him, okay?"

Jiraiya grinned. "I promise."

::

There were about seven different types of bugs on the countertop, but they steadily stayed clear of all the baking ingredients strewn around them. Flour patched the granite, used bowls were stacked on top of each other in the corner, and two young shinobi—one chuunin and one genin—were sat near the oven where they could see the light shining on the slowly simmering cupcakes inside.

"Do you think we need to make another batch after this?" Chouji asked, peering through the oven glass with a recipe book open in his lap. Beside him, Shino adjusted his glasses and let some of his bugs crawl over the exposed areas of his skin.

"I see no need to," he answered. "There are six trays in there right now which leaves us with seventy-two cupcakes." He observed the steel frame of the industrial-sized oven, then turned to note the rest of the kitchen. "I've never seen such a large oven before. Or a large food preparation area, in fact."

"My family likes to cook."

"I know. The meals your mother had delivered to the Aburame compound were delicious."

Chouji grinned. "And now our clans are closer! I even heard some of us are working on platoon collaborations. It's the first I've heard of them working outside Ino-Shika-Cho formations."

Something unprecedented began to flourish between the Akimichi and Aburame clans after Orochimaru's siege on Konoha. The Aburame had never been a social group, always keeping to themselves and opting to never lower themselves into others' business. But the ever-social Akimichi had suddenly come along when part of the Aburame housing was destroyed in the attack and offered to help rebuild. The Aburame never sought their help before and never once had been helped by the other clans in the village.

It was strange. First it started with seeing Shino and Chouji around the village on more than one occasion, then Shibi and Chouza set up a meeting between clans, and the next thing they all knew, it was like both families had known each other for years.

Chiharu poked her head through the kitchen arch and smiled at her son and his quiet friend. "Good morning, boys!"

"Good morning, kaa-san."

"Akimichi-san. How was your day so far?"

"Oh, it's been wonderful, dear. Thank you for asking," she replied happily. Chiharu peered into the oven with the critical eye of a seasoned chef. "I just re-counted our guest list for the gathering and we're going to need, well—" she glanced back at the boys "—we need about double the cupcakes."

Chouji took on a somewhat triumphant look on his face knowing they needed those extras while Shino took on something like silent resignation, the thought going through several more batters at the forefront of his mind.

"Alright," Shino said as he glanced cautiously at the counter. "Double the cupcakes."

::

Ino was dead set on becoming a chuunin the next time exams rolled around. Her and her team did the best they could in the first section, but the preliminaries was where their asses really got kicked. Her and Chouji couldn't compete with this year's batch, but next year...

She threw open the door to Shikamaru's room and launched herself onto the lump on his bed. "Get up! It's already eleven, you said you'd be in the forest by nine, and you made me wait a whole two hours before I had to come up here myself and drag you out Shi-ka-ma-ru!"

There was a groan and thump as she yanked the covers and sent his body tumbling onto the ground.

"Troublesome woman..." Shikamaru grumbled. "I just got back from a mission."

"Two days ago! Two! Now get your sorry butt up before I decide to haul you down there myself!"

Downstairs, Shikaku sipped at his coffee as his eyes roamed over the morning newspaper, completely ignoring the bumps and shouts raining down from above. Ah, Ino. What an angel she was by keeping his lazy son in line.

He barely batted an eye as the girl in question stormed down the stairs with the scruff of Shikamaru's shirt in her grip. "Good morning, Ino-chan. Shika."

Her devilish expression changed into a bright one when she acknowledged him. "Good morning, Shikaku-ji!" Then it immediately morphed back into irritation as she glowered at her friend. "You're supposed to be helping me train, you sluggish bag of bones! Come on, we're losing daylight!"

"It's morning!" Shikamaru whined. But his pleas were lost as he was ultimately dragged out the door and into the Nara Forest. Shikaku raised his cup in their direction as a laugh bubbled up in his throat.

"Have fun, you two."

::

Gaara sat in the shade of his sand as his siblings sparred on the dunes outside Suna. Temari offered to fight him first, but he politely declined, telling them that he'd rather watch and toy with his rose quartz shell. A lot happened over the past few weeks with the Ichibi, Orochimaru, and the Konoha Crush that decimated the village by killing nearly a third of its shinobi forces. Orochimaru was killed, fortunately, and it was Sasori who told him recently who really was strong enough to end his terror.

It only made him look up to Sakura even more.

He extended his sand to catch a stray kunai one of Kankuro's puppets threw and gently placed it on the ground. Speaking of Sakura, he'd just finished writing a letter to her some hours ago, asking how she was doing and if the cactus he gave her was growing well. He hadn't heard from her since the aftermath of the exams, and he was a little worried. She landed herself in the hospital last they talked.

"Temari. Kankuro," he called softly. "I'm going into the village to get water. What do you two want?"

"Water's fine for me too!"

"Oh, some pineapple juice, baby bro—what the fuck, Temari?! I was talking to Gaara!"

"Don't lower your guard, loser!"

"Bully!"

"Doll boy!"

Gaara slipped the strap of his gourd over his shoulder before silently slipping away from the argument and into the village. He kept to the shadows and away from the people as, even though his presence no longer caused the village to flee on sight, they regarded him warily and grew uncomfortable whenever he drew near.

He approached one of the vending machines on one of the lesser populated streets and slipped in the coins he needed for the drinks, but found that he was a couple ryo short.

"Oh," he mumbled. That wasn't too much of a problem, considering he could just transport himself back home and back to the machine with the only consequence being that his siblings had to wait a little longer. But it was also hot outside and he didn't want them to go on longer without drinks.

A open palm appeared in his vision holding the exact amount of change he needed.

"Is this what you need?" a kind voice questioned. Gaara raised his head to meet Yashamaru's soft lavender eyes. Shakily, he plucked the coins from his uncle's hand and averted his gaze back to the vending machine.

"Thank you," he murmured. Yashamaru reached out to pat the boy's head, paused half way, then retracted his arm as his stare dropped to the side.

"You're welcome, Gaara-sama."

::

Hanabi kept to herself, her milky white eyes peering over her book at the two on the other side of the physical therapy ward. Neji was steadily getting better, or as better as others said he was because he simply couldn't admit to others that he needed to stay at the hospital for another few weeks. She watched as Neji half-heartedly swatted at the hand that helped steady his torso as he practiced walking on a stretch of wood flooring enclosed by two sets of rails.

"I don't need any help! I can walk fine!" he protested. Hinata shook her head and firmly planted her hands back on his arms.

"You-You don't need to do gait tr-training all by yourself! I'll help! What if, if you fall?!"

"I won't fall, Hinata-sama!"

"You don't, don't know that!"

"Yes I do!"

They'd been squabbling for a good fifteen minutes already, and Hanabi would've torn her hair out by now if she wasn't so stunned that her older sister and cousin were getting along in a way they never had before. Because before, he only spoke to her when necessary and regarded her with nothing more than loathing and disdain. But ever since his defeat at her hands in the chuunin exam preliminaries, his actions had taken an unexpected turn towards friendship, if not an exasperated family relationship.

Hanabi's eyes narrowed even further. And it wasn't just the preliminaries. When Neji was delivered to the hospital at death's doorstep with nothing more than a thread of life to hang on to, Hinata stayed glued to his side until he woke up and was deemed stable in his recovery.

She frowned at her cousin's utterly loud demands that he could walk fine enough on his own. So fine, in fact, that he could leave the hospital if he really wanted to (though not really. He still had weeks if not months of rehabilitation ahead of him). Hanabi shut her book with a quick snap and set it down in the chair next to her before stalking over to the both of them.

Then kicking Neji in the shin with a firm look on her seven year old face. "You! Be nicer to Nee-sama!" She turned to Hinata, ignoring her flustered surprise at the assault. "Why don't we ask Sakura-sensei to deal with this difficult patient?"

Two things happened at once. The surprise kick aside, Hinata began to go on about how wonderful of an idea it was! Sakura was good with people and she was strong, so there was no reason for Neji not to listen to her. On the other hand, Neji gripped the rails to steady himself as he hissed out an incredulous, "Sensei? Since when was Haruno a sensei?"

Hanabi jabbed her finger at him. "Since I asked her to teach me! Now are we going to get her or not?!"

"Yes!" Hinata exclaimed. Neji cut her off.

"Absolutely not!"

Hanabi exhaled harshly. This was going to be a long day.

::

Sai jerked to a stop on the road before his body gravitated towards a bright red tree on the other side of the path, his companions floundering to catch themselves before following. "Look at this tree! And its color! We almost passed it and it has such beautiful shape and texture and how have I never seen this tree before?! I've lived here all my life and suddenly—amazing!"

Kiba planted his hands on his hips as Sai suddenly pulled out a sketchbook and plopped right down on the ground. With an obliging sigh, he and Akamaru took a seat as well. "Dude, seriously, how have you never seen this tree before? It's always been here."

Akamaru barked.

"Yeah, see? You're the only one goin' crazy here."

"No, no, no, look! It's got red leaves and—Konoha trees with red leaves? How rare! And the shape is so different and it's so nice to look at and..." He went on and on, Kiba placing his head in his palm as he listened to his friend talk a mile a minute about a tree. The guy was so weird and the fact that he was a civilian made it even weirder, but he couldn't seem to move his attention anywhere else. Sai was odd, but it was the type of odd that was kind of... endearing.

He snapped out of his musings when he realized the kid in question had his face only a few millimeters away from his own while holding one of the red leaves next to his profile.

"Wow! They're as dark as the triangles on your cheeks and—what are you staring at?"

Kiba blinked slowly, almost dazed. "Your eyes look like my sister's pretty black jewelry."

"Oh, thanks! So about how I'm going to draw this tree, right..."

::

"Remember, Lee," Gai reminded. "Youth is all encompassing, so it extends to your friends, your family, your rival, your village! Don't let it go, not even for a second, and spread it to everyone so they can relish in its wondrous feeling!"

It seemed that Lee was the only student in attendance for the day. Neji was still recuperating and Tenten had stopped by earlier, saying she had an important errand to run. For reasons unknown to him she looked nervous with damp palms and shaky breaths, so he could only wish the best for whatever she decided to do.

"Yes, Gai-sensei!"

"Yosh, my youthful student! And what are your goals for the future in your success of training?!"

"I will fight Sabaku no Gaara again!"

"Fantastic! And?!"

"I will then challenge Neji-san once he's recovered and ready for field work!"

"A spectacular goal! Have you more?"

"Of course!" Lee exclaimed. "Once I've done those tasks and proven my strength, I will ask Sakura to join me in a battle of eternal youth! She's truly one of the strongest shinobi I've met and it would be an honor to spar her one on one!"

Gai stalled for a moment, thankful his student was too caught up in a youthful vigor to notice his reluctance. There was nothing wrong with Haruno Sakura—she and the rest of Kakashi's team were good friends to his own and he had immense gratitude for her by being able to save Neji.

But there was ROOT. A sannin's demise. The steel in her eyes.

The death in her hands.

He forced a smile onto his face and struck a pose. "That's right, Lee! We'll train until the sun sets on our glorious days!"

He would never forget what he saw that day. And with Sakura being the center of it all, he didn't know how to feel about it either.

::

Tenten drew in a deep breath as she stood outside an office door in the hospital. She flexed her hand, tapped her foot, and stared up at the golden name plate hung above her head. She could do this. The worst thing that could happen was getting told "no", right? Then she wouldn't take it too hard because what were the chances of this actually happening? She really wanted this, though, and it would hurt if she got rejected. 

But there was no time like the present, like Gai-sensei always said.

So she puffed up her chest, straightened her spine, and knocked. A voice filtered out the door, strong and decisive. 

"Come in."

Her confidence started to waver, but Tenten tried to keep her cool as she took a spot in front of Tsunade's desk with her hands balled into fists at her side. The Konoha Hospital Director wrote some more on her current report before dropping her pen down on her desk and looking up. Calculating hazel eyes scanned her person, a blonde eyebrow quirking when she realized her visitor was not a nurse, not a doctor, and certainly not injured.

"What do you want?"

Tenten's resolve hardened. "Please make me your apprentice, Tsunade-sama!"

::

The exchange between him and Kisame... bothered him, to some small degree. It didn't feel right fighting him and certainly didn't feel right killing him. Ever the pacifist, he always looked for a way out, but Hoshigaki was a strong opponent and the only way to end things was with his life.

In the end, he got the scroll.

But victory never felt so empty because he felt that maybe if time had been different... he would've known him.

He kept his true feelings contained as he walked up the steps of the Hokage Tower and reported to Dan in his office and delivered his oral report without sparing a single detail. As Itachi went on, he noticed his Hokage delve into a look of steady contemplation, and at the end of his statements, he was met with questions completely out of the realm of what he was expecting.

"So you didn't think it was right for you to end his life, right?" Dan questioned. Itachi shifted.

"No, Hokage-sama. I had no reason to kill him, and I shouldn't be in charge of deciding someone's life when it isn't a life or death situation," he answered. The Godaime steepled his fingers and set them on his desk. His kind smile conveyed his message of 'speak freely, there's no one other than me who'll hear you'.

"Even if he attacked you?"

"We're shinobi, and though it's our duty to kill or be killed, a human's moral duty is to bring peace."

The older man gained a thoughtful expression. "You want to change the shinobi system to have more empathy."

Itachi shifted again as an odd feeling curled up his back. Where were all these questions coming from? Did he do something wrong? His Hokage's lack of stern reprimand had him thinking otherwise and that was starting to worry him.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Because we're still people."

Dan's smile widened as he stood to offer a proposition that made Itachi's eyes widen at the mere concept.

"Itachi-san, have you ever thought of getting into village politics as an individual and not as a representative of the Uchiha clan?"

::

Knitting wasn't new to them.

But knitting on the roof... well, that was a different story.

It was a cool Konoha night with no traces of the warmth or humidity of just a few hours prior. They tugged a blanket and a couple of pillows with them along with their knitting needles, their yarn, and some junk food to munch on the rest of the night. 

Kakashi glared at sight of the armful of things from his pantry splayed across the rooftop. Sakura grinned and stared him straight in his eyes as she opened one of the bags and stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth.

"You're disgusting."

"And you're horrible to look at, so that makes two of us, doesn't it?" she said. She picked up her orange knitting needles and a half-made bow from one of the bags. "... But... I owe you an explanation. I told you before I left that I'd answer any of your questions, but first, I'll tell you what I can." She let out a hollow smile as his eyes widened a fraction. "And I'll start by telling you about T&I."

Sakura told him about T&I. About Genma who found her and Ibiki who took her under his wing. Then she told him about her parents' deaths—how she couldn't save them and how Ibiki brought her in. After, she told him about her trauma, Danzo's interest, and her goal to take ROOT out of his hands so she could build it up into something Konoha hadn't seen before.

She told him about the change she wanted to bring because she didn't want to see anyone's worlds fall apart.

And by the end of her account, she sighed. "I... didn't want to involve anyone else because I don't want anyone else to go what I went through, so I kept it from them. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them." She took in a deep breath. "Well? You still have questions for me after, you know... all that?"

He was quiet a few more moments. The moon shone overhead in the starless sky, the only other light besides the lantern glowing in between them. The streets below were barren and silent with the streetlights steadily shutting off one by one the longer the night crawled into early morning.

"You're an idiot."

"... Huh?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "For thinking that you'd always be by yourself. All the friends you've made and all the people you've helped... They're a part of your life now. A part of you." He stuck one of his silver knitting needles into a ball of yarn. "You're like a terrible disease. I thought you were smart enough to know that you didn't need to be alone anymore."

Sakura stared at him for a while, hundreds of emotions brimming under her skin and grinning when she leaned over to punch him in the shoulder. "Shut up, asshole."

Her eyes lifted up back to the sky.

"Maybe I'm finally learning to."

::

The next chapter will be Stumble [Epilogue], and I expect to have it finished sometime between July and September. If there's anything you would like to submit to me before then, please try to send it to me by July 15!

Thank you all for coming this far! <3

::

Here are some wonderful covers by wonderful people!

asonnetforyou !

Never_Trust_A_Genius !

5-stepsahead !

and Bianxxx_ !

Next we have awesome fanart and fan pieces by

Jennie-Chan !

Teukari123 !

@Kumikocr (from Archive of Our Own) !

and by anonymous!